Kris Mordecai (he/they) is the Interim Chief Operating and Financial Officer at SAGE where they lead the Finance, HR, IT, and Facilities teams for the organization. They bring two decades of experience in nonprofit management, administration, and organizational leadership for progressive social change. Kris’s approach puts an emphasis on bringing mission-aligned, values-based strategies to financial management, human resources, talent management, and general operations policies and procedures.
Before joining the team at SAGE, Kris served as the Director of Finance & Operations at the New York City Anti-Violence Project (AVP), where he worked to apply AVP’s anti-oppression values to all aspects of making the organization run, including finances, operations, human resources, IT, and facilities. For Kris, this means applying an antiracist lens to HR and workplace culture policies and decisions, employing a participative and collaborative budgeting process that reflects the organization’s collective values, and striving to create trauma-informed workspaces in both the physical and virtual environments. Prior to his work at AVP, Kris led the financial and operations functions for two other LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, GLSEN and Out & Equal, for a decade. Over the years they have broadly impacted the movement by pushing for intersectional approaches to LGBTQ+ advocacy, progressive change in internal management and policies, and better trans-inclusion within movement organizations.
Kris has volunteered for the past eight years as a board and committee member of Urban Sketchers, a growing global organization with over 125,000 members across 70 countries, that exists to promote storytelling through on-location drawing. When they’re not working for SAGE, teaching, or volunteering, you can usually find Kris out exploring the world on a bicycle, cooking fancy meals at home, or drawing and painting.
Specializations:
- Organizational leadership & staff management
- Organizational culture & change management
- Sustainable strategies for diversity, equity & inclusion
- HR/Talent strategies
- Staff supervision & management
- Performance planning & evaluation
- Board management & governance
- Financial management & budgeting
- Strategic planning
Education:
New York University, Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, Master of Public Administration
Agnes Scott College, Bachelor of Arts in Political Science & Spanish